ST. PETERSBURG, FLA.—For the first half of Friday’s 5-4 walk-off loss to the Tampa Bay Rays, it looked as if it would be another stellar start for R.A. Dickey at Tropicana Field.

While the dreaded Trop has long been the proverbial “House of Horrors” for the Blue Jays, Dickey enjoys pitching in the dimly lit dome. Heading into the game he owned a 2.31 career ERA at The Trop and threw a complete-game two-hitter on his last visit in June. And through the first five innings he held the Rays to just three hits and a single run, while his knuckleball had late and dramatic life.

But in the end, despite an early lead and a late-inning comeback, The Trop continued to haunt the Jays.

“Tonight for me was tough because I had a good knuckleball,” Dickey said afterward. “This is a good place for me. It’s not often that you give up eight baserunners and four of them score. It was just a very bizarre night.”

Rays catcher Jose Lobaton hit a game-winning triple into the right-field corner in the bottom of the ninth, scoring ex-Jay Yunel Escobar from first.

“It’s the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life in baseball,” said Lobaton of his first career walk-off hit.

With Boston losing to New York Friday night, the wild-card-holding Rays are now within a single game of first place in the AL East.

The Jays had a two-run lead in the seventh, but it evaporated in a strange sequence, beginning with an unlikely bloop single on a check swing, worsened by a walk and an unwieldy wild pitch, before the runs scored on a fielder’s choice and another single.

Jays manager John Gibbons was more succinct in his summary.

“We had the lead, we gave it up. Had plenty of opportunities, couldn’t get it done. It’s pretty simple. That’s why they’re at the top and we’re at the bottom. It’s pretty simple.”

With the loss the Jays’ record in one-run games dropped to 15-20. The Rays, meanwhile, improved to 19-17 in such games.

“We play a lot of close games like this and there’s games where we get a chance and we crawl back into the game and we seem to let down,” said Aaron Loup, who gave up the triple to Lobaton and took the loss.

“He just first-pitch ambushed me,” Loup said. “I was trying to go down and away and I thought I made a pretty decent pitch, he just stayed on it, hit the ball the other way, drove it down the line and wound up driving in the winning run.”

Despite the lost cause and the four earned runs against, Dickey was solid as he gave up just six hits and walked two over his seven innings. Though he has fallen well short of expectations this season, Dickey has been much improved of late, pitching to a 3.84 ERA since June. What has hurt him most this year — besides the nagging back-and-neck pain that limited his use of his hardest knuckleball through the first two months — has been the hitter-friendly Rogers Centre, where he has given up 19 of his 27 home runs. Ditch his starts at home and Dickey nearly has a sub-3.00 ERA.

Brett Lawrie continued to swing the hottest bat in the Jays’ lineup, going 2-for-4 to extend his hit streak to six games. He now has hits in 17 of his last 18 games and has four multi-hit games in his last six.

Maicer Izturis also matched a season high with three hits on the night.

IT’S A BOY!

Munenori Kawasaki stayed back in Toronto on Friday to attend the birth of his first child, a boy. Both mother and child were doing well Friday night, the team said. Kawasaki was added to the paternity list, which affords up to three days off the roster. Pitcher J.A. Happ, meanwhile, who was on the bereavement list to attend his grandfather’s funeral, was activated and will start Saturday. Asked to imagine what a Kawasaki toddler might be like, Gibbons laughed. “Oh man, that kid’ll be happy, I’ll guarantee you that.” The Jays are 39-33 with Kawasaki in the lineup and 17-33 without him.

JAYS SET ROTATION

Gibbons said Friday that Esmil Rogers and Mark Buehrle will pitch the day-night double-header in New York on Tuesday, followed by Dickey on Wednesday and Happ on Thursday, while Todd Redmond will open the series in Houston next Friday. There was some speculation that the Jays might call-up one of their young prospects to handle one of the double-header games, but Monday’s off day allows the Jays to roll the rotation as is.

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